Apparatus for continuous dyeing of textiles



Fe'b. 3;.'1970' AfKoRscH APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUS DYEING OF TEXTILES- A Filed Aug. 30, 1967 F /GJ nl l United States Patent Oh ice 3,492,840 Patented Feb. 3, 1970 3,492,840 APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUS DYEING OF TEXTILES Alfred lKorsch, Krefeld, Germany, assigner to Gerber & Co., G.m.b.H., Krefeld, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Aug. 30, 1967, Ser. No. 664,375 Claims priority, application Germany, Jan. 2, 1967, G 48,913 Int. Cl. Bc 1/08 U-S. Cl. 68-202 1 Claim ABSTRACT 0F THE DISCLOSURE Considerable quantities of textiles are dried by various processes which are adapted to the particular type of textile being dyed. Where the textile surface being dyed is of a fanciful design on one side, such as floor coverings, carpets and needle carpets with a relief like design napped side, certain problems exist which cause additional expense and effort to properly achieve the satisfactory product. It has long been known that a carpet may be passed directly through the dyeing liquor whereby the dye is absorbed onto the textile. However, individual portions of the fabric may be dyed non-uniformly and the dyeing time under this method may be as long as three or four hours or more. To remedy this situation, it has been suggested to first pass the textile through the dyeing liquor, and thereafter squeeze the textiles between rolls to block on the dye. Thereafter, the textiles are steamed and washed to fix the dye. A disadvantage of this method is that the goods oftentimes are non-uniform in color. Moreover, when the fibers of the pile are pressed to any great extent, they are bent and the process of fixing the dye results in permanent distortion of the pattern. Moreover, the rug bottom is also charged with dye which, due to the nature of the base oftentimes does not properly absorb the dye. Thus the excess dye must be washed out during the steaming and washing step, resulting in considerable losses of dyeing liquor and substantial expense and effort is expended to accomplish this step` In some instances, where the base is a nontextile base, the water repellent capacity of the goods are adversely effected by immersion into a bath and upon wetting the reverse side thereby resulting in additional steps before continuous treatment may be maintained.

It would be of great advantage to the art if a simple method for dyeing the nap side of textiles could be achieved.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to eliminate twoside dyeing of textiles having a base side and a nap side.

Another object of this invention is to prevent the waste and expense of recovery of dye introduced onto the base side of textiles.

A further object of this invention is to prevent dyeing and/or moistening of the reverse side of textiles.

Other objects will become apparent upon a reading of the following description and claims.

It has now been discovered that the above objects of this invention may be accomplished in the following manner. In its simplest form, the invention comprises a method and apparatus for dyeing the nap side of textiles. The textile is passed between two rollers, whereby the first roller contacts the nap side of the textile and transfers dye from a dye source to the nap side by rotating the roller through a trough of dye and then further rotating the roll into contact with the nap side of the textile. The second roll is positioned so as to contact the reverse side of the textile at a point of contact whereby the textile is squeezed between the first and second rolls. In a preferred embodiment of this invention, the amount of dye transferred by said first roll may be adjusted by varying the distance between the dye and the point of contact. This is accomplished, in one embodiment, by pivotally mounting the trough containing the dye on the shaft of the first roll. Thus by adjusting or rotating the position of the trough, the distance between the dye and the point of contact may be varied. Finally, in another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to afford additional protection against the transfer of dye through the textile to the reverse side by constructing the first roll of softer material than the second roll. Thus as the textile passes through the point of contact and is squeezed between the first and second rolls, the nap side which contacts the softer roll is not crushed and is not subjected to as great a force as the reverse side. vBecause of this difference in hardness of the two rolls, little or no dye is forced through the textile to the reverse side.

The accompanying drawings illustrate typical forms of the apparatus according to the present invention, and in which the method of the invention may be advantageously carried out. Referring to these drawings:

IFIGURE l shows the apparatus in a lateral View, partially sectioned.

FIGURE 2 shows a section of FIGURE 1 with a different position of the trough for the dye liquor.

A first roller 12 with a soft surface and a second roller with a hard surface 11 are rotatably positioned at a machine frame 10, said rollers contacting each other at a point of contact at one place of their circumference. The iirst roller 12 has a soft rubber jacket 13 with, in this case, a hardness of 20 to 40 shore hardness and is positioned in a trough 14 surrounding the roll 12 by more than one half. The trough 14 has on one side a feed 15 for the dye liquor and a discharge 16 on the other side. The dye liquor 17 is stored in a storage tank 18 and flows via flexible conduit 19 and the feed 15 into an annular area 20' between the roller 12 and the trough 14. From there the dye liquor reaches the other side of the trough and flows into a groove 22 via an overflow 21. The groove 22 is connected again via a iiexible conduit 23 to a circulating pump 24, yby which the overflowing dye liquor is conveyed back to the storage tank 18.

The textile to be dyed is designated generally by the number 30 and may be any textile surface formation with a nap side such as floor coverings, rugs, and needle rugs with relief like designs on the nap side. This textile is pulled off a pile 31 into the direction of the arrow 32, and is guided with its reverse side 30a via a roller 33 and part of the circumferential surface of roller 11, and is withdrawn for further processing via an additional reversing roller 34. During its travel around roller 11, the nap side 30b of the textile surface formation 30 is squeezed at the point of contact of roller 11 at the rst roller 12 and is moistened with dye liquor which is carried along by first roller 12 from the trough 14. rIhe dye adheres to the surface of the roller 12 when said roller 12 rotates clockwise. Thus, only the nap side 3011 of the surface formation is dyed, while its reverse side 30a is not dyed or at the very most is slightly colored.

Depending upon the particular textile being processed, and in consideration of pile height, extent of relief like design, concentration of dye liquor and the like, more or less dyeing liquor must be carried along by the rst or application roller 12 and be applied to the product. To control the dye liquor quantity carried along by the application roller top 12, the trough 14 is positioned lby pivotally mounting the trough around the axis 25 of the roller 12. Shown in FIGURE 2 is angular area 26 which is defined as being the angle between a line 36 passing through the axis 25 and parallel to the oor upon which the apparatus is based and a line 38 which passes through the center of axis 25 and a point at the top of the overow 21. In FIGURE 1, the trough 14 has been rotated above axis 25 in a counterclockwise direction, thereby positioning overow 21 below a center of axis 25. The dyeing liquor 17 must pass along roller 12 over a long and steep path, over which path most of the dye liquor is discharged back into the trough, so that the application of dye is small. In FIGURE 2, the overow 21 is positioned higher than the center of the axis 25 so that the dye liquor only needs to travel a short and less steep path to the point of application, whereby more dye liquor is applied to the textile.

The above description of the drawings illustrates various preferred embodiments of the invention. Other modications and variations of the invention will .become apparent to one skilled in the art upon a reading of the instant disclosure.

Having thus described the invention and set forth the manner and process of making and using the same, the invention is claimed as follows:

1. An apparatus for dyeing the nap side of a textile, comprising:

an upper roll adapted to contact the reverse side of said textile;

a lower roll positioned to contact the nap side of said textile at a point whereby said lower roll forms a nip with said upper roll;

a trough containing a quantity of dye and positioned around said lower roll to permit a portion of the surface of said lower roll to contact said dye;

overllow means on said trough and adapted to regulate the amount of surface of said lower roll in contact with said dye;

dye supply means adapted to add suicient dye to said trough to continuously cause dye to exit said trough through said overflow means;

wherein said trough is mounted on the axis of said lower roll, such that said trough is capable of rotation about said axis; and

' whereby said overllow means is adapted to move with respect to said lower roll when said trough is moved about said axis.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,997,952 8/1961 Horrocks et al 68-202 X FOREIGN PATENTS 21,886 1913 Great Britain.

WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 118--258 

